This invention relates generally to the automated exchange of information between a web server and a plurality of visitor servers to facilitate the promotion of goods and services, and more particularly to the use of a hierarchical protocol based upon extensible markup language (XML) in order to enable concurrent scaleable bi-directional interaction between machine visitors and a host organization, including machine-to-machine communication of data related to the availability of goods, services and information.
The present invention is a machine-to-machine communication protocol and system having a predefined destination (universal resource locator (URL)) for bootstrapping the communication process, a structured content protocol using XML. The system is also closed-ended, using a rule-based syntax with conditional data interaction. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes GUI-based design and programming tools enabling the set up of host and/or visitor machines in accordance with the protocol.
Heretofore, a number of patents and publications have disclosed applications for extensible markup language systems, the relevant portions of which may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,098 to Baych et al., issued Jan. 4, 2000, teaches the use of servlets to isolate the retrieval of data from the rendering of data into a presentation format.
xe2x80x9cThe XML Handbook,xe2x80x9d by C. Goldfarb and P. Prescod, (ISBN 0-13-081152-1), Prentice-Hall, 1998, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches the use of extensible markup language (XML) in electronic commerce (e-commerce), particularly in various applications for user-interaction with e-commerce systems.
An overwhelming portion of current Internet content is provided for a human recipient of the content and is designed for the human cognitive system. The Internet content is structured hierarchically and rendered using artifacts such as URLs, images, buttons, etc., so that the human recipient""s mind can tackle the vast amount of information selectively. Most e-commerce sites spend significant of resources on making their Internet site user-friendly and presentation rich.
While this seems to be the most effective strategy to serve the consumer in general, the explosive growth of the Internet (including volume and choice) make it impossible for the average human to come to the terms with the situation. In other words, if a person needs to search for a piece of information on the Internet, particularly purchase information, his/her predicament is approximately the same as rummaging through the paper-based Library of Congress. So it is reasonable to believe that consumers will turn to computer based solutions to help them search, filter and organize the Internet data expediently. Early examples of this are the search engine and cataloging of content available through Yahoo(copyright) or NorthernLights.com(copyright)
In ordinary circumstances, it is not a technical challenge to build automated data mining solutions directed at the Internet content. However, the format and presentation of Web content currently found on the Internet is not suitable for access by machines (other computers) at all. The widely diverse styles and structure of Internet content, partially as a result of the lack of structure in the hypertext markup language (HTML), make it extremely hard for data mining solutions to take root on a widely applicable basis. The universal resource locator (URL; a mnemonic representation of an IP address), menu, image, or button based interface meant for humans becomes a huge bottleneck for any automatic connect/query/report strategy of search and data mining engines.
Accordingly, organizations need to implement a machine accessible interface to their web sites (or at least to web-accessible information), so that other computers and software-based systems and content providers can access their systems intelligently. Software systems work best when they exchange structured information using unambiguous interfaces. Hence, the present invention is a system that allows web sites to provide a universal content exchange interface, using XML as the format of data, so that machine-to-machine exchange can be used to communicate information and thereby further electronic commerce.
One object of the present invention is to establish a protocol whereby every company wishing to provide information relating to its products and/or services will utilize a common upper-level domain name identifier (e.g. xml.yourcompany.com) that will serve as a machine-to-machine gateway.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a software module and associated protocol; XML based Machine Access Schema (XMAS) that enables any company to install the machine-to-machine interface with minimal programming effort. In one embodiment, such an interface would enable the exchange of non-secure product/service information only. In other words, it would not require the use of secure channels such as SSL or digital certification.
A further object of the present invention is to enable various extensions of basic machine-to-machine communications, including initiation of information exchange, perhaps followed by a secure data exchange between two or more trading xe2x80x9cpartners.xe2x80x9d
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for machine-to-machine communication to facilitate electronic commerce, comprising the steps of: receiving an access schema inquiry from a visitor machine; and in response to the request from the visitor machine, sending from a host machine to the visitor machine, an access schema description for at least an upper level of said schema, wherein the access schema description advertises services offered by the host.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for facilitating electronic commerce, including: a computer-based, host machine having access to data pertaining to vendor offerings; a computer-based visitor machine for establishing a dialog with the host machine; and a network interconnecting the host and visitor computer-based machines to enable for the exchange of data therebetween; wherein the visitor machine initiates a dialog with the host machine to determine a service discovery protocol therefor.
One aspect of the invention is based on the discovery of techniques for using an extensible markup language as a structural component for machine-to-machine communication. The techniques eliminate or reduce the need for manual preparation of predefined hierarchies of data, database structure, etc. Such techniques can be implemented, for example, by defining and using XML elements and a hierarchical data transfer protocol, whereby a host machine can communicate it as a data structure to a visitor machine and then reply to further inquiries for additional data from the visitor machine. The techniques can be implemented with any machine that can support existing Internet communication protocols, including HTTP, Java Messaging Services or CORBA.
The techniques described herein are advantageous because it is both an efficient and simple solution to the problem of widely varying content and lack of structure typically found in current Internet-based e-commerce systems. In addition, it facilitates the exchange of non-secure product/service information. The techniques of the invention are advantageous because they provide a protocol that incorporates unlimited alternatives as to the structure of content, yet permits efficient searching and transfer of product/service information using machines. Some of the techniques can be used to provide comparative product and service information in a comprehensive format for user review. As a result of the invention, the accuracy of locating appropriate goods or services will be tremendously improved. Since the WebServers publicize their services in an unambiguous and structured manner, Internet Portal companies can easily set up a true product-listing database comparable to a Yellow Pages index.
XML is currently used in Business-to-Business environments, where the participants involved in the information exchange are pre-qualified in a trusted framework. The trust is enforced through several meansxe2x80x94submission of credit card information, establishing a legal contract, exchanging Digital Certificates or explicit partnerships. The existing trust based framework does not allow XML based information exchange between the organizations and universal portal vendors and/or their web spiders.
The current invention provides a framework to setup a trust-free and qualification-free framework to exchange structured unambiguous XML content between any organization and any XMAS-aware information-seeking visitor. However, it is contemplated that a trust-based exchange may follow between the host organization and a customer as a result of information initially exchanged in accordance with the present invention.
The information exchange protocol described in relation to the current invention, XMAS, also provides a framework where an organization can advertise its trusted services in a trust-free environment. An element of the information exchange could be the description of methods required to obtain services in a trusted framework. The Host server can integrate its trusted services into the trust-free framework offered by XMAS. Thus, in a fully implemented environment, XMAS allows seamless transition between Trusted and Trust-free environments.